The Trump administration will not come out ‘unscathed’ from the Signal ‘war plan’ leak debacle as it shows ‘the average American’ they care little for the lives of soldiers overseas, former U.S. diplomat Brett Bruen has told the Mail’s new Apocalypse Now? Podcast.
Trump’s team invited widespread condemnation this week after discussing missile strikes against Houthi insurgents in a WhatsApp group chat which accidentally included editor-in-chief of the Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg.
Brett Bruen, a former White House Director of Global Engagement who worked in the situation room during Obama’s presidency told the Mail’s Special Correspondent David Patrikarakos that the Trump administration would live to regret the leak.
‘They’re not going to get away with it. Or at least, they’re not going to get away unscathed from it’, Bruen said.
‘The signal crisis is something that your average American can understand and relate to. They know what it’s like to inadvertently include a friend that you’re talking about in a chat.
‘Secretary of Defence Pete Hesgeth has denied it was war plans: the next day we are shown precise timings, what kind of weapons will be used, what kind of planes and drones are going to be deployed. I spent a year embedded in the US Army in Iraq as a diplomat, that’s what a war plan looks like.
‘Plenty of veterans, plenty of the family members of current US service members are going to be looking at this and saying: these guys are playing fast and loose with the safety of my loved ones, the safety of my friends.’
Bruen described the leak as another example of the Trump administration’s ‘farcical’ foreign policy.
Brett Bruen: ‘They’re not going to get away with it. Or at least, they’re not going to get away unscathed from it’
Brett Bruen is a former White House Director of Global Engagement who worked in the situation room during Obama’s presidency
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He emphasised his ‘shock’ as a former diplomat at hearing America’s recent threats to seize Greenland by force and to incorporate Canada as the 51st state.
‘I always believed that America stood for certain core values. I can’t say that longer’, Bruen said.
‘The idea that Trump is going invade and colonise Canada is farcical… when you hear J.D Vance say, as he’s on his way to Greenland: ‘It’s in the US’s interest to control all of this‘, well that’s exactly what Vladimir Putin said when he invaded Ukraine.’
Apocalypse Now? is a brand-new weekly global news podcast hosted by the Daily Mail’s special correspondent and best-selling author David Patrikarakos.
Every episode promises a panel of guests who are on the frontline of the geopolitical world as it threatens to spin off its axis.
Each week, listeners can expect informed analysis, discussion, and on-the-ground reporting about the most influential diplomatic flashpoints.
From President Trump rewriting American foreign policy at will and war in Europe, to hostilities in the Middle East and the resurgence of Isis – has world order ever felt so uncertain?
You can listen to ‘Apocalypse Now?’ wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes released every Thursday.